Annotated
Bibliography
Andersen, Kip, et al. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability
Secret. Santa Rosa, Calif.: A.U.M. Films,
2014. DVD.
Cowspiracy really
served as a good catalyst for my research as well as narrowing down my topic to
focus on the meat industry in the United States particularly. The film really
opens up your mind to why industrial livestock raising is the leading
contributor to fossil fuels (via release of methane gas), and promotes the
benefits of a complete vegan diet and change to the way we view the world
entirely. This source will prove useful to my paper for it’s imagery and
thought provoking questions that even the leading environmental organizations
such as: NRDC, Oceana, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Surfrider, and others either
choose to ignore and even contribute to covering up the truth.
Davis, Jennifer, et al. "Environmental Impact Of Four
Meals With Different Protein Sources:
Case Studies In Spain And Sweden." Food Research International 43.7 (2010): 1874-1884. GreenFILE. Web.
11 Nov. 2015.
This is yet another study about the effects of meat diets
verses vegetarian diets but this time focuses on two different locations in
Europe. It’s important to note that despite these studies taking place in
Europe, their findings are still useful as we are dealing with global issues
and information very related to that of our own country. If anything were to be
assumed it’s that the findings here would most likely look much bigger in
America as we consume much more meat than anyone else. In this article
particularly one finds that meat diets are less sustainable than vegetarian.
The big different in this slightly more specific article is that they found the
pea diets consume roughly the same amount of energy in producing it compared to
meat diets. Despite this fact, significant evidence points to vegetarian diets
still holding the edge in sustainability due to the fact that plant don’t
produce waste that releases methane gas into the atmosphere.
Herrero, M., et al. "Livestock And Greenhouse Gas
Emissions: The Importance Of Getting
The Numbers Right." Animal Feed Science & Technology 166-167.(2011): 779-782. GreenFILE.
Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
This is a complementary article referring to the negative
effects of grazing animals and climate change. What they focus on especially is
the issue of differing data. Like in Oreskes and Conway’s book, The Collapse of Western Civilization,
the article I use here breaks down the problem regarding scientific discovery
and making use of this data found. Especially in America, we find data with any
sort of variability skeptical. This mind-set has set us back in progress of
tackling the issue of global climate change. More specifically, in the case of
industry meat production it has clouded our judgment causing us to doubt the
impact of this issue. I use this article to promote a change in how we look at
scientific studies related to livestock and green house gas emissions. In order
to successfully make an understandable argument for policy makers, one must
make sense of variability in numbers to further understand the extent of this
issue.
Johnson, Nathanael. "What Does "organic"
Actually Mean?" Grist. Grist, 04 Nov. 2015.
Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
This article begins to point out a lot what Michael Pollan
tends to argue in his book, The
Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, in regard to
questioning organics in general. It covers a lot and sums up nicely specific
attributes explaining what organic means. Like Pollan, this text highlights
specific pros and cons to the movement that people don’t tend to think about
when shopping in a super market. The pros mainly incorporating the banning of
pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and the cons being a misleading image in
combination with the use of practices no different than industry production.
This information will be useful in my argument as the organic movement is an
important aspect in discussing sustainable food practices policy makers should
know more about especially here in the United States.
"Lives on the Line: The High Human Cost of
Chicken." Oxfam America. Oxfam America,
n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.
“Oxfam America is a global organization working to right the
wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. As one of 17 members of the
international Oxfam confederation, we work with people in more than 90
countries to create lasting solutions”. This third party organization put out
an article about labor conditions at chicken plants and highlights key issues that
the four major producers often try to cover up and keep secret. My paper
focuses a lot about the conditions for the animals themselves, but in this
article I will utilize information regarding the human condition for the
workers, as they are unsafe and often unsupported by their domains. I feel as
if people often get caught up with the excuse that these provide people with
jobs. That is a very lazy answer as if we focused on safer jobs like
sustainable gardening and others we wouldn’t even need this sort of job.
Andersen, Kip, et al. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability
Secret. Santa Rosa, Calif.: A.U.M. Films, 2014. DVD.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural
History of Four Meals. New York:
Penguiess, 2006. Print.
Michael Pollan’s book contains a plethora of information
regarding the diets of human beings, (hence the omnivore title). He traces the
history of the big industry farming and questions the ethics of what we choose
to put on our plates. Filled with a plethora of content, I hope to focus on the
matter of feedlots as well as what Pollan recommends we should end up putting
on our plates. Furthermore, I will use this text to take Singer’s ideas a step
further into a modern perspective. Pollan himself comments on Singer’s
philosophy and agrees with the move to less meat-based diets especially in the
United States.
Premalatha, M., et al. "Energy-Efficient Food Production
To Reduce Global Warming And
Ecodegradation: The Use Of Edible Insects." Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 15.9 (2011):
4357-4360. GreenFILE. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.
For the most part, the concept of entomophagy, the human
diet of eating insects, seems like a stretch for most people in the United
States to wrap their heads around. I use this articles finding to bridge the
gap between the unsustainable industrial meat system we have now and this more
sustainable idea/alternative of eating insects as our main source of protein.
In order to stress the urgency behind this proposal, I take note of the current
rise in demand for meat. Partially due to the increase in population, the
bottom line remains that given the increasing demand, meat industry leaders
will continue to try and meat those demands. This in turn forms a cycle because
it not only feeds the people buying into the problem but meeting the demands
described also increases the use of fossil fuels. Moreover, the negative
effects of the meat industry continue to grow and only fuel the fire of the
green house gas issue.
Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983.
Print.
In the mid 80’s Tom Regan wrote The Case for Animal Rights, and Peter Singer edited the book. This
book provides moral arguments for the case of animal writes. This further
supports my argument in my paper because as well as treating animals with moral
consideration, the benefits of avoiding these practices outweigh the setbacks
many people are afraid of. Regan makes good points regarding the use of animals
as test subjects as well as hunting them for sport, but I want to focus on his
middle portion of his movement: the total dissolution of commercial animal
agriculture. As a result, I want to talk about the concepts of
contractarianism, human rational, egalitarian perspectives, as well as what
Regan himself concludes in his argument.
Scarborough, Peter, et al. "Dietary Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Of Meat-Eaters, Fish- Eaters,
Vegetarians And Vegans In The UK." Climatic Change 125.2 (2014): 179-192. GreenFILE. Web. 11
Nov. 2015.
The content of this published work discusses a study done on
the green house emissions that come out of different diets including: meat
eaters (high, medium, and low), fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. As I
expected the results clearly showed that the closer to vegan a diet is, the
less carbon footprint one leaves behind. In fact, the article found that the
dietary greenhouse gas emissions for meat eaters doubled those of vegans. This
article supports my argument very much as it touches on the issue of global
climate change. Ethical issues aside, the data found in this article alone
should point to the fact that meat-eating habits are by far some of the most
concerning factors in regard to global climate change.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side of the
All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2001. Print.
I’m not sure for certain yet if I want to include this book
into my white paper, but either way it served as an eye opening experience to
how I view the fast food nation we live in. The book is filled with real-life
examples of not only the conditions for the animals, but also the conditions
for the workers as well. If included into my paper I will utilize the story
described of a dedicated slaughterhouse worker who did everything he could for
the company, yet received little support when injured multiple time on the job.
The story certainly puts into perspective the real lives of the people working
in these conditions as well as highlighting the big companies responsible for
the issue.
Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of
the Animal Movement. 40th ed. New
York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2015. Print.
This book was crucial in beginning a philosophical
questioning of our meat eating habits. Originally written forty years ago, this
book has sparked a revolution in regard to the ethical consideration for the
treatment of animals. Specifically, the book discusses the meat eating diet and
concludes how it is unethical because those who oppose human suffering must
then oppose animal suffering. Despite the fact that the book came out almost
half a century ago, it's still crucial to discuss in the ethical history
portion of my paper. I will highlight the arguments that initiated other
writers and tie that into my overall argument to changing the American diet. In
this case, it will come from a philosophical point of view rather than a
conservation point of view.
Todd, Richard W., et al. "Methane Emissions From A Beef
Cattle Feedyard During Winter And
Summer On The Southern High Plains Of Texas." Journal Of Environmental Quality 43.4 (2014):
1125-1130. GreenFILE. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Methane is a seriously powerful green house gas that must be
avoided as much as possible. The problem is that our unjust diet contributes to
the issue significantly from the amount of excrement produced from the animals.
This specific study, done in Texas, highlights the ties between feeding and
emissions and also confirms the tier two estimates of CH4 emissions
provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The data discussed
here will prove very useful in my argument for changing the way Americans eat.
For policy makers, the science presented in this study acts as clear evidence
of the negative impacts. More importantly, it will show them a close to home
example of the pollution this practice causes hopefully encouraging them to
incorporate it in their policy decisions.
Yen, Alan L. "Entomophagy And Insect Conservation: Some
Thoughts For Digestion." Journal
Of Insect Conservation 13.6 (2009): 667-670. GreenFILE. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Here I utilize another article addressing the beneficial use
of entomophagy, (the diet of eating insects). This article goes in depth of how
beneficial insects could be as a protein substitute for meat in general. By
studying this topic of entomophagy, these findings suggest various sustainable
conservation management practices that could help reshape how we get and share
our food. I use this article to explore the options from entomophagy, which
provide policy makers valid reasons to support this step away from grazing meat
industry like: smaller carbon footprint, health benefits and efficiency,
availability, and more.
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